Monday; Tuesday / Wednesday 27; 28-29 October.

Work was returned. Students who had turned in their reading journals and their synthesis paper on identity on time had those papers returned to them.

Mr. Zartler introduced the following assignment, and students had time to work on it in class.

Non-Fiction Group Project Instructions

Project Instructions: While reading your non-fiction book, you kept track in your journals of how individuals or groups of people were identified, categorized or discriminated against based on their gender, age, social class, religion, race, and national origin.  You also paid close attention to who had privilege and why, and who were the oppressed and why.  Another aspect you were to consider was how people define themselves and how they were defined by others and were different from others.  Now, you need to share what you noted with your partners and create a group project that visually reflects what you’ve learned.  You also need to have a connection to at least one of the other texts we have read, viewed, or listened to during this unit.  You will present this to the class.

How you do this is up to you, but here are some formatting suggestions: a scrapbook; a painting; pop-up book; video; musical performance where you create your own lyrics, and even better, a tune to go with it; a PowerPoint; a Prezi; found art.  Try to do something new that challenges you or something you’ve learned in another class that can be practiced through this project.

Requirements: Form a group of 2 or 3 people with those who have read the same book as you.  Somewhere in the project you need to have the following: 3 quotes from your book, 3 images (either concrete or abstract; literal or figurative) that reflect ideas, concepts, or characters in your book, 3 connections to other works (these can be written, implied, or symbolically represented for example).  Your grade will also be based on your contribution to the project, the perceived care given to the project, and professional production.  You are also required to complete a final reflection on your personal growth while doing the project.  No one will receive credit for the group project without this personal reflection.

Due Dates: Tuesday / Wednesday 5 / 5 November

Points Possible: 100

Group Project Individual Evaluation

What connections did you make between your book and the unit, the study of the individual?

How are those connections represented in your project?

What did you learn about your book by doing this project?

Group Evaluation

Name:

Group Members’ Names:

1.    In this section, I want you to reflect on what was learned.  Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper.  Your grade will be based mostly on what you write in this section, so take it seriously.

a.    What connections did you make between your book and the unit, the study of the individual?

b.    How are those connections represented in your project and/or in your presentation?

c.    What did you learn about your book by doing this project?

2.    The following questions require only a sentence or two to answer.

a.    How did you contribute to the project?

b.    Based on the criteria for the assignment, do you think you “did not meet”, “met”, or “exceeded” with the project?  Why? 

c.    What are two things that your group did well?

d.    What are two things that your group could have done to improve your project?

Monday-Friday 20-24 October

This week students had Monday to finishing preparing to complete the work sample for the following prompt. The next two class periods were spent producing the synthesis paper.

I’m not You, So Who Am I?

Prompt: A cultural-anthropologist from PSU is conducting research on Millennial’s attitudes and understanding about how they identify themselves and how that has or hasn’t changed from previous generations.  You have been selected to write an essay that compares and contrasts your perspective as a Millennial to those of past generations. Use Truth, Momaday, Mason, Kaplan, Casares, and/or Mukherjee’s essays to define identity as they seemed to have defined it, as they collectively represent earlier generations.  You can also refer to the series of caricatures from the late 18^th and early 19^th Centuries, the Radio Lab excerpt we listened to, and the film Crash.  In your expository synthesis essay define how these authors describe who they are and how they compare and contrast from the way you identify yourself or how your generation defines itself. Try to identify the various aspects of self that you consider important, referring where appropriate to the essays in this chapter citing the source with the author’s name and page number.  Be sure to discuss your own identity, in other words define who you are, how you see yourself, how others might see you, and how yours and your peers’ attitudes differ from previous generations.

Final Product: Your final written product will be an expository synthesis essay with the cultural-anthropologist’s as your audience.  Use MLA format

Materials and Resources Required:

·      Copies of the Thomson Reader: Conversations in Context 2007 Edition by Robert P. Yagelski

·      You may use your notes.

You’ll only have two block periods to complete this task; we will be in the computer lab next week. It is obviously VERY, VERY important that you be in class

.

Thursday / Friday 16 / 17 October

Students should have turned in their independent reading dialogue journals in class.

Students were introduced to a major writing assignment that will be completed next week:

I’m not You, So Who Am I?

Prompt: A cultural-anthropologist from PSU is conducting research on Millennial’s attitudes and understanding about how they identify themselves and how that has or hasn’t changed from previous generations.  You have been selected to write an essay that compares and contrasts your perspective as a Millennial to those of past generations. Use Truth, Momaday, Mason, Kaplan, Casares, and/or Mukherjee’s essays to define identity as they seemed to have defined it, as they collectively represent earlier generations.  You can also refer to the series of caricatures from the late 18^th and early 19^th Centuries, the Radio Lab excerpt we listened to, and the film Crash.  In your expository synthesis essay define how these authors describe who they are and how they compare and contrast from the way you identify yourself or how your generation defines itself. Try to identify the various aspects of self that you consider important, referring where appropriate to the essays in this chapter citing the source with the author’s name and page number.  Be sure to discuss your own identity, in other words define who you are, how you see yourself, how others might see you, and how yours and your peers’ attitudes differ from previous generations.

Final Product: Your final written product will be an expository synthesis essay with the cultural-anthropologist’s as your audience.  Use MLA format

Materials and Resources Required:

·      Copies of the Thomson Reader: Conversations in Context 2007 Edition by Robert P. Yagelski

·      You may use your notes.

You’ll only have two block periods to complete this task; we will be in the computer lab next week. It is obviously VERY, VERY important that you be in class.

Students were provided the following graphic organizers for the project, and the class wrote about and discussed identity and worked on organizing data for the graphic organizer.

Tuesday / Wednesday 14 / 15 October

The class was reminded that dialogue journals for independent reading is due next class. Journals should be typed and neatly assembled.

Class had SSR.

Students shared the interior monologues based on the Vargas piece, and considered the question, "Is there a consistent difference in the way allies understand or perceive a situation as compared to the way a "victim" or persecuted person sees the same situation?"

4th Period class ended by writing on the prompt:

Write about a time when faced with a moral dilemma. Mention or indicate what written or unwritten law was violated, and describe the dilemma and the actions taken in detail.


7th period class spend time writing about a conflict they were part of in which they played one of the roles: target, perpetrator, bystander, or ally.

7th period began discussing the questions, "What makes it easier or more difficult to relate to a character in a text?" and "What factors do people consider wen identifying themselves?"

9 / 13 October

Students read and jigsawed a memoir by Jose Antonio Vargas "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant".

Students in 2 and 3rd periods began developing an interior monologue based on the piece.

Students were reminded that dialogue journals for their independent reading are due on Monday, 17 October.

7 / 8 October

Class studied a variety of graphic texts relating to the history of immigrants in the United States.

Monday, 6 October

Students completed the "Radio Lab" piece from last class.

Students had some time for SSR.

Students received a grade print out to check their progress and for errors.

Students were reminded that Mr. Zartler would be out next week.

Students were also given the following letter to bring home; this letter was also emailed home.

October 6, 2014

Dear Parent or Guardian,

Teachers at Grant have shown the movie Crash for several years now because the movie brings to the forefront the themes of conflict and racism, two themes we have been studying this last month as part of our identity unit.  We haven’t received any complaints from students or parents about studying this R rated movie in classrooms in the past, but I want to be sure you are fine with your student seeing this movie.  Crash was nominated for six awards at the 78th Academy Awards and won three, including for Best Picture. It was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor (Matt Dillon) and the other for Best Screenplay (Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco). 

The following is from a website called Common Sense Media that rates films for families.  I’ve copied and pasted here what the website has to say about the drawbacks of the film:

Parents need to know that, as the film interrogates urban fears, violence, and racism, the language, particularly the use of racial epithets, is rough. The film also features several violent scenes, including a carjacking, a pedestrian hit by a car, a five-year-old child shot by a handgun (with her parents watching), and several car crashes. Policemen, detectives, district attorneys, and an insurance adjuster prove untrustworthy; characters steal cars, do drugs, drink, smoke cigarettes, and have sex (including implied oral sex in a car and a cop putting his hands on a woman's private parts, in front of her upset husband, under the guise of "patting her down.")

Viewing this list alone, the film would appear to be inappropriate by some parent’s standards.  However, I’ve seen the strong positive influence the film has on students as they study the effects of prejudging another and how that can snowball into something unpleasant.  What the review doesn’t include is a synopsis of the many random acts of kindness that occur in the film.  Also, the film isn’t any worse than what one sees on broadcast television, with the exception of the swearing that would be bleeped out.

I strive to treat my seniors like adults and prepare them for a college experience that many will have next year but they are still considered minors.  I do believe, however, that the material is appropriate for high school seniors, and will provide for a rich addition to our curriculum.

If you have an objection to your student viewing this film, please let me know and I will provide an alternative assignment.

Sincerely,

Jamie Zartler